Blended families may not always be easy - but they’re worth it.

Real families. Real challenges. Real Solutions.

Marriage & Blended Family Coaching • Workshops • Speaking • Resources • Real Conversations

Blended Family Matters Academy™ was created by Tyrone & Jessica Pickens (Coach Ty & Coach Jess) Marriage & Blended Family Life Coaches who have spent more than 20 years living the realities of marriage, parenting, and blending a family.

We know firsthand that love alone doesn't automatically make a blended family work. Sometimes you need practical tools, honest conversations, a strategy, and people who understand what this journey actually looks like.

That's why we're here.

Through couples coaching, workshops, speaking engagements, our podcast, practical resources, and online community, we share the lessons, tools, faith, and strategies we had to learn the hard way — so other couples and families don't have to figure everything out on their own.

Need support in your marriage or family?
Schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation with Coach Ty & Coach Jess.

Looking for speakers or facilitators for your conference, marriage ministry, workshop, retreat, church, or community event?
Invite The Pickens.

Blended Family Matters Academy™

Blended Family Matters Academy™

When we met and got married in less than 90 days (yes, CRAZY!), we became a blended family literally almost overnight. We loved each other, we loved our children, and we truly believed we could figure the rest out along the way.

And eventually we did, but not without making mistakes…lots of mistakes…. big and small.

Some of those mistakes affected our marriage. Some affected our children. And some taught us lessons we wish someone had sat us down and taught us before we ever said, "I do."

That's a big part of why Blended Family Matters Academy™ exists.

Today, after more than 20 years of marriage and blended family life (woop-woop!), we're taking what we've lived, what we've learned, and the practical and spiritual tools that helped us grow and are using them to help other couples build healthier marriages and stronger families.

As Marriage & Blended Family Life Coaches, we work with blended family couples, as well as traditional married and engaged couples, who want practical support navigating marriage, communication, parenting, family dynamics, boundaries, conflict, connection and the everyday work of building a healthy family.

We don't coach from a place of pretending we've done everything right, cause Lord knows we absolutely have not!

We coach from a place of knowing what it takes to keep learning, healing, adjusting, forgiving, growing, and choosing your marriage and family again and again…. every day…. day after day.

We’re Coach Ty & Coach Jess - and we’ve lived this.

Blended Families Are Our Heart. Healthy Families Are Our Mission.

Blended families will always be at the heart of BFMA because this is our story. But many of the issues that affect blended families, including communication, trust, boundaries, parenting, conflict, intimacy, expectations and connection, affect ALL relationships.

That's why our coaching, workshops and resources can also serve traditional married couples, engaged couples and individuals who simply want to build healthier relationships and stronger families.

If something we have lived, learned or overcome can help another family avoid unnecessary hurt and build something stronger, we want to share it.

HOW WE CAN HELP

Marriage & Blended Family Coaching

Sometimes you don't need another social media post, podcast or book — you need a safe space to talk honestly about what's happening in your relationship and practical help figuring out what to do next.

Through small-group coaching and private couples coaching, we help couples strengthen their relationships, work through challenges, improve communication and build healthier, more connected families.

Our coaching is practical, transparent and faith-rooted, built not only on what we've been trained to teach, but on more than 20 years of actually living marriage and blended family life ourselves.

We intentionally keep our group coaching cohorts small and our private coaching availability limited so that we can create an engaging, personal experience and give the couples we serve the attention they deserve.

Interested in coaching with Coach Ty & Coach Jess?
Start with a FREE 30-minute consultation so we can learn a little about you, talk about what you're looking for and determine together whether BFMA coaching is the right fit.



Workshops & Events

We believe transformation happens when honest conversations meet practical tools. BFMA offers workshops and learning experiences designed to help couples better understand themselves, their relationships and the unique dynamics that can affect marriage and family life.


Invite The Pickens

Looking for authentic, relatable voices for your marriage conference, couples retreat, church, family event, panel, podcast or workshop? Coach Ty & Coach Jess bring a transparent mix of lived experience, practical strategies, humor, faith and real conversation to discussions about marriage, relationships, parenting and blended family life.


Podcast, Resources & Community

Not ready for coaching? You can still grow with us! Through the Pickens' Realities podcast, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, books, tools and resources, we continue sharing the real-life lessons, conversations and strategies that have helped our family move from simply blended toward truly bonded.


Chicago-Based. Serving & Speaking Beyond Chicagoloand.

Based in the Chicago area and available virtually, Coach Ty & Coach Jess serve couples in Chicagoland and beyond through marriage and blended family coaching, workshops and events. They are also available to travel locally, nationally and internationally for select speaking engagements, marriage conferences, couples retreats, church and community events, panels, workshops and other experiences centered on healthy marriages, relationships, families and blended family life.